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Soul Blade (3.5e Prestige Class)
Soul Blade There are those that have such a passion and ability for battle, there souls become fully embroiled in battle. They have become so enamoured by their favoured weapons, they become one with their weapon. By becoming one with their instruments of war, a Soul Blade truely embodies the art of fighting, destruction and death. It is there, in the heated depths of battle, do their souls truely feel alive. Becoming a Soul Blade A Soul Blade comes with the power to hide a wepaon or shield within the body, rather than carry it in the open. Often a Soul Blade is a fighter who has come to know the true depths of his soul, or a rogue who wishes to conceal his blade deep within his soul; where none other may get ahold of it. Class Features A Soul Blade's abilities revolve around his Soul Shapes; either a weapon or a shield absorbed into his soul that he can manifest or "draw" from a part of his soul. All of the following are class features of the Soul Blade. (Su): The Soul Blade gain the power to manipulate a portion of his soul so that it manifests as a weapon or shield that he owns. In order to do so, the Soul Blade must sacrifice the chosen shield or weapon, allowing it to become one with his body. That item is destroyed for as long as it is held within the Soul Blade's soul. The item becomes known as a soul shape. The Soul Blade's soul shape is completely hidden when it is not "manifested" or "drawn" and cannot be found by any form of searching. A Soul Blade can draw his soul shape as a move action and the shape is normally manifested in a specific thematic way. A ranged weapon soul shape still requires the Soul Blade provide ammunition for it. If the Soul Blade's soul shape is thrown or disarmed, then the soul shape dissipates upon contact with any surface, becoming part of the Soul Blade's soul once more (and, thus, requiring to be drawn again), although a thrown weapon still deals damage before dissipating. A Soul Blade can reabsorb the soul shape into his soul as a move action. A Soul Blade can only make a soul shape out of a melee weapon, ranged weapon or a shield. He cannot make a soul shape from ammunition or improvised weapons. The Soul Blade must be proficient with the weapon or shield he chooses as his soul shape. A crossbow, or similar ranged weapon, are stored with a full round of ammunition. Once a soul shape is chosen, the Soul Blade cannot change the chosen soul shape. If a Soul Blade enters an antimagic field effect or is targeted by a dispel, then the soul shape appears in the Soul Blade's hand or clatters to the ground if hands are currently occupied. If dispelled, then the power of the soul shape is suppressed for 1d4 rounds, but immediately regains it's powers at the end of the duration. While in an antimagic field, the soul shape loses it's powers until the Soul Blade leaves the effect. If the Soul Blade has the Quick Draw feat, he can draw and reabsorb his soul shape as a free action on his turn. As a full-round action, the Soul Blade can part his Soul Shape from his body. The item returns to it's material state. It retains any enhancement bonuses from the Imbue Soul ability (below). (Su): The Soul Blade can imbue his soul shape with power by imbuing it with his own life essence, tying it further to his own soul. The process of imbuing a soul shape with power is quite simple. The Soul Blade must find a quiet and safe spot to meditate for 24 hours. At the end of the meditation, the Soul Blade sacrifices a number of experience points, essentially tying his soul to his soul shape. The soul shape then becomes a magic weapon or magic shield (if it wasn't already) and gains an enchantment bonus and/or special abilities. His class level limits the amount of enchantment a Soul Blade can place onto his soul shape. A Soul Blade cannot imbue a soul shape if doing so would cost enough experience to reduce his character level. Use the table Soul Shape Costs to determine the XP costs and class level limits. If the meditation is interrupted, it can be begun at any time, but it must run for a full 24 hours for the soul shape to be imbued. The Soul Blade pays the XP cost as soon as the meditation is completed. A Soul Blade's soul shape has a caster level equal to character level +10. The XP cost presented on the table assumes that the weapon being imbued does not already have an enhancement bonus. If it does, the cost to imbue it with additional power is reduced. For instance, if a Soul Blade has a +1 longsword and wants to imbue it with the power to be a +3 longsword, he may do so by paying the difference in XP cost between creating a +1 weapon and a +3 weapon (360 minus 40, or 320 XP). (Su): The power of the Soul Blade's soul begins to strength the bond with his soul shape. He gains a bonus depending on what type of Soul Shape he has: * Melee Weapon: Damage die increased by one step. * Ranged Weapon: Damage die increased by one step. * Shield: Shield gains the Ghost Touch enhancement. (Su): Through various ties and links to the Soul Blade's own soul, his soul shape gains certain properties that feed off his soul to power. At 2nd and 4th levels, the Soul Blade can choose a power from the list of soul powers. At 4th, he can choose one for each of his soul shapes. The powers are as follows: * Weapon Soul Shapes ** Piercing Soul Strike: Once per encounter, the Soul Blade may make an attack against an enemy's touch AC, as long as the attack is made with a Soul Shape. ** Aligned Metal Soul: The Soul Blade's soul shape changes from metal to metal. It overcomes damage reduction as though Cold Iron, Silver and aligned to your alignment. ** Soul Arrow: The Soul Blade can uses an arrow made entirely out of force with his ranged weapon. These arrows dissipate after one round. * Shield Soul Shape ** Shield of Air: The Soul Blade's shield can be loosed as the animated armor enchantment once per encounter for 3 rounds. * All Soul Shapes ** Adamantine Soul: The Soul Blade's soul shape is made from adamantine. It gains all the properties of an adamantine weapon or shield. A ranged weapon bestows this property onto it's ammunition. (Su): The Soul Blade's soul shapes gain their true power as they become one with the soul, a true manifestation of his desire to battle. The Soul Blade's soul shape becomes completely unsunderable and not made out of any terrestrial material. The Soul Blade also gains a bonus depending on what type of soul shape he has. If a weapon, he gains a bonus equal to half his class levels to attacks made with his soul shape. If a shield, he gains a bonus equal to half his class levels to his AC when fighting defensively or using a total defense action. (Su): The Soul Blade's power rises again, as his first soul shape becomes tied to his soul. He becomes capable of taking another soul shape into his body. (Su): The Soul Blade's Soul Shape becomes fully integrated with his soul, increasing his power even further. His Empowered Soul also applies to his second Soul Shape and his first Soul Shape increases in power. * Melee Weapon: Increase damage from the Soul Blade's main ability damage by one half. * Ranged Weapon: Multiply the range of an ability that has a maximum range by 1.5. * Shield: Enemies who miss the Soul Blade take damage equal to 1d8 + Shield's AC bonus, as long as the shield is manifested. (Su): The Soul Blade's soul shape begins a true conduit to the soul. It allows for power to be transferred along, becoming one with the soul. One of the Soul Blade's soul shape gains the Essence Reaver ability, which is dependent on what type of soul shape is used. The following ability is gained dependant on soul shape: * Melee Weapon Soul Shape: Whenever the Soul Blade kills his opponent using his melee soul shape, he steals a portion of their essence and mixes it with his own, empowering his soul shape. If the Soul Blade kills an opponent with his soul shape, he gains a +2 bonus to strength, +1d8 temporary hit points and his weapon can overcome any damage reduction that the creature had. These bonuses last for 5 rounds before the essence is expelled from the soul. This effect only occurs if the opponent is of an adequate CR to grant experience. * Ranged Weapon Soul Shape: The Soul Blade gains a +2 insight bonus to his dexterity while his bow is manifested. He also gains the ability to add his dexterity modifier to his damage on ranged attacks. If he already has dexterity to ranged damage, he gains 1.5x his dexterity modifier to damage. * Shield Soul Shape: The Soul Blade's shield is capable of unerring defense. Whenever attacked, the Soul Blade may use an attack of opportunity to block an attack. When blocking, the Soul Blade makes an opposing attack rolls, with a bonus equal to the Shield's base AC bonus. If the Soul Blade's roll is higher, the attack misses. Every time the Soul Blade blocks an attack, he gains a +1 bonus to his saves against magical effects, to a maximum of +5 after 5 blocks. These saves last for 5 rounds. Campaign Information Playing a Soul Blade Combat: The Soul Blade is a versatile combatant; from ranged support to flanking pin-point attacks to front-line melee fighter, the Soul Blade can do it all, depending on his choices of soul shapes. A Soul Blade is reliant on his soul shapes, due to the powers they have over them. A sneaky Soul Blade could easily sneak into a well-guarded institution appearing to have no weaponry or a fighter can manifest his shield in the heat of battle to provide himself with more defensive capabilities. When attaining the capstone power, Essence Reaver, a Soul Blade can easily empower himself by dispatching foes with his melee weapon, or defend himself against powerful spells by protecting his mind with his shield. Advancement: The Soul Blade can usually go back to his base class or take a prestige class tied to his base class. The Soul Blade prestige class offers no other paths into different classes or paths. Resources: Soul Blades have no set resources; they are often far and few apart to create any viable organization. Soul Blades are unique individuals, due to their complete lack of training in the art of unlocking a soul shape; due it being sort-of "instinctual". Soul Blade's in the World Soul Blades can be anywhere in the world, as long as there are those that fight, there are those that can become Soul Blades. But, they are very often fare, far and few between to actually be noticed, though their rather unique set of abilities can get attention if used too much. Rogue Soul Blades can often be the most versatile of assassins, hiding their blades within their souls and dispatching a target, with no visible weaponry. A Soul Blade who has ascertained the Essence Reaver power with their melee weapon can easily dispatch numerous weak enemies to empower their own souls, absorbing their essences into their bodies. NPC Reactions: A Soul Blade does not announce his presence through normal means; they cannot be spotted easily and they cannot be identified unless actually manifesting their weapons. Even then, it can be a stretch to get to know they are truly Soul Blades. Yet, those that know of a Soul Blade can know that they are deadly individuals, capable of manipulating their own souls to in battle. This idea could cause some form of outcry or panic in those of the idea of pure souls or pacifism. Soul Blade Lore Characters with ranks in Knowledge (Religion) can research Soul Blades to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs. Variant Rules Tomb of Battle: Book of Nine Swords: If using the Tome of Battle and entering the Soul Blade class with a martial adept, then the following variant can be used: At 2nd and 4th levels, the Soul Blade gains 1 maneuver from any discipline he has access to. At 3rd level, he gains 1 stance from any discipline he has access to. This prestige class counts as a martial adept prestige class and is added directly to the initiator level of the martial adept. Soul Blade's in the Game The Soul Blade is a combat orientated prestige class and is sought by those of a combat-based incentive. The Soul Blade is useful for those who wish to "smuggle" their weapons wherever they need them, effectively always being armed or defended by their soul shape. Adaptation: Soul Blades can be anywhere where combat is. They could be any combatant or even any rogue or assassin. A Soul Blade does not show any outward signs of being a Soul Blade until they are in combat, so nearly anyone can be easily transformed into a Soul Blade. Sample Encounter: A strong warrior who has mastered the power of the Soul Blade has been driven mad by his thirst for battle. He wishes for it all day long and looks for it in any given situation. The players have managed to upset him in the Tree of the 12 Pillows, a local inn. EL 13: Sanders! ---- Category:3.5e Category:User Category:Class Category:Prestige Class